Joanne Cash Interview
By Big Al Weekley for Country Music News International Magazine & Radio Show
Sister of Jonny Cash! Sister in law of June Carter Cash!
Arkansas CMA Awards 2019
WINNER
Inspirational Artist of the Year
Album of the Year: UNBROKEN
Music Video of the Year: BACK HOME IN ARKANSAS
Joanne Cash Yates’ Journey of Faith
Growing up in the Cash family alongside Johnny, plus fellow siblings Reba, Jack, Tommy, Roy and Louise, some of her earliest memories from their Dyess, Arkansas upbringing (the family later migrated to Nashville ) was singing spiritual standards in the cotton fields while working in the steamy sun, after which the family would convene inside together for old time radio programs.
On October 18th, 1970, Joanne gave her heart to Jesus at a small area church and began a brand new life. It was at that time she found a musical calling while working at House of Cash, Johnny’s famed recording studio, office space and musical museum. “I learned so much about the music business and my desire to sing increased rapidly,” offers a jovial Joanne. “I got involved in singing at church and then sang at the Grand Ole Opry on Fridays from 1972-1976 with Jimmy Rodgers Snow’s ‘Grand Ole Gospel Time.’”
During that era, Joanne also met the new love of her life, Dr. Harry Yates, whom she married on December 27, 1971. The couple soon dedicated themselves to full time music ministry, traveling with her two daughters. After fifteen years of full time preaching and singing the gospel they felt called off the road in 1990 and headed back to Nashville . The couple founded Nashville Cowboy Church which started with a mere six people in the Sweetwater Lounge of a local Holiday Inn. It gradually multiplied into two hundred attendees, then doubled to four hundred, after which it transferred to the sizable Texas Troubadour Theatre (adjacent to the Opryland Hotel), where Joanne continues to sing every Sunday. Aside from area services, Cash hosts frequent concert engagements, such as aTuesday night residency at the Wyndham Vacation Resort where she shares a variety of original and gospel/country covers, plus tidbits of the Cash family testimony.
As the younger sister of the legendary Johnny Cash, Joanne Cash has certainly made her way in the music industry. With twenty-six historic recordings, the acclaimed autobiography My Fears Are Gone, and continuous concert appearances, the singer/songwriter extraordinaire is driven by a deeper sense of eternal purpose. “I’m amazed that at my age I still want to sing, but it’s like therapy for me,” she summarizes. “Johnny always helped me remember that and he was constantly encouraging. But there was one short phrase from Johnny that’s always stuck with me and it’s one I’ll continue for as long as I’m here, ‘Baby, just keep on singing!’”